Painted for the high altar retablo of the San Pedro Mártir church in Toledo, Spain. Later, it was removed from the monastery following the 1835 Spanish ecclesiastical disentailment (known as the desamortización de Mendizábal). Held via the Museo de la Trinidad (a mid-19th-century repository for confiscated religious art) before entering the core collection of the Museo Nacional del Prado in Madrid.
This Resurrection (La Resurrección) is one of the most remarkable early Caravaggesque masterpieces of Spanish art created by the Spanish Dominican friar and Baroque painter Fray Juan Bautista Maíno (1581-1649). It was commissioned for one of the main canvases of the high altarpiece (retablo mayor) in the Dominican church in Toledo, San Pedro Mártir. In two counterpointed, harmonic sections, Maíno has organized the composition.
The resurrected Christ emerges from an open stone tomb and is standing in a halo of celestial light. He is surrounded by a swirling pink mantle, with the white banner of victory, which he carries, and in which Maíno's deep connection to the Italian style, of the Mannerist-influenced anatomy and classical statuary, is manifest.
There are four Roman soldiers in awe and sleeping at the feet of the sarcophagus. Maíno’s direct influences of Caravaggio’s naturalism (tenebroso) and Orazio Gentileschi’s glowing palette are reflected in the unique qualities of their features, armors, metallics, and realistic drapery.
In the background, a delicate and subtle landscape is gradually revealed as the first light of dawn breaks, alongside small foliage, distant hills, and plant drawings indicative of the influence of the north that Giovan Battista passed on via his Italian values in Milan.
Fray Juan Bautista Maíno was a student in Italy (Rome and Lombardy) from 1600-1610 and was an important figure in the Roman Baroque revolution. In the altarpiece of the saint San Pedro Mártir, he introduced the new Caravaggesque vocabulary in Spain, which was to be used by the Caravaggesque painting style of Velázquez and Zurbarán. The moment that the retable was completed, Maíno entered into the Dominican Order and became a drawing master of the young Prince of Asturias (later King Philip IV).
The Resurrection is a later addition to the collection of the Prado (secularisation of the monastery property - Desamortización de Mendizábal) in the 19th century. It continues to be a key source of information on the diffusion of Italian naturalism into Golden Age Spanish painting.
A fine example of the Caravaggesque painting style, "La Resurrección" depicts Christ and four Roman soldiers through the lens of anatomy and classical statuary. The anatomical precision is praiseworthy and the incorporation of Italian naturalism, as revealed in the background landscape, is noteworthy. Fray Juan Bautista Maíno excelled at his delicate and precise artistic qualities. Perhaps, this painting is a testament to his qualities as a painter.
